Abstract
Doctor–patient trust is not strong in China, but studies examining this factor remain insufficient. The present study aimed to explore the effect of doctor–patient communication, medical service quality, and service satisfaction on patient trust in doctors. Five hundred sixty-four patients with tuberculosis participated in this cross-sectional study in Dalian, China. They completed questionnaires assessing socio-demographic characteristics, doctor–patient communication, medical service quality, service satisfaction and patient trust in medical staff. A structural equation model was applied to examine the hypotheses, and all the study hypotheses were supported: (1) doctor–patient communication, medical service quality and service satisfaction were positively associated with building doctor–patient trust; (2) service quality positively mediated the relationship between doctor–patient communication and trust; (3) medical service satisfaction positively mediated the relationship between doctor–patient communication and trust; (4) medical service satisfaction positively mediated the relationship between medical service quality and doctor–patient trust; and (5) medical service quality and service satisfaction were the positively sequential mediators between communication and doctor–patient trust. Based on these findings, improvements in doctor–patient communication, medical service quality, and service satisfaction are the important issues contributing to the rebuilding of doctor–patient trust in medical service delivery.
Highlights
Doctor–patient trust is not strong in China, but studies examining this factor remain insufficient
Suboptimal patient trust in doctors gives rise to doctor–patient conflict and prejudice, and patients’ poor treatment adherence, which may further lead to the aggravation of their illness, treatment interruption or failure, relapse, infection of others, and obstruction of the progress of TB treatment and control in China. Based on these findings and using patients with TB as study sample, the purpose of present study was to test the hypotheses that (1) doctor–patient communication, medical service quality and service satisfaction directly benefited building doctor–patient trust (H1); (2) service quality mediated the relationship between doctor–patient communication and doctor–patient trust (H2); (3) medical service satisfaction mediated the relationship between doctor–patient communication and doctor–patient trust (H3); (4) medical service satisfaction mediated the relationship between medical service quality and doctor–patient trust (H4); and (5) medical service quality and service satisfaction were the sequential mediators from doctor–patient communication to doctor–patient trust (H5)
The linear regression analysis showed that only hospital type was significantly associated with doctor–patient trust, and the county hospital exerted the greatest effects on this outcome (Table 1)
Summary
Doctor–patient trust is not strong in China, but studies examining this factor remain insufficient. The present study aimed to explore the effect of doctor–patient communication, medical service quality, and service satisfaction on patient trust in doctors. Five hundred sixty-four patients with tuberculosis participated in this cross-sectional study in Dalian, China They completed questionnaires assessing socio-demographic characteristics, doctor–patient communication, medical service quality, service satisfaction and patient trust in medical staff. A structural equation model was applied to examine the hypotheses, and all the study hypotheses were supported: (1) doctor–patient communication, medical service quality and service satisfaction were positively associated with building doctor–patient trust; (2) service quality positively mediated the relationship between doctor–patient communication and trust; (3) medical service satisfaction positively mediated the relationship between doctor–patient communication and trust; (4) medical service satisfaction positively mediated the relationship between medical service quality and doctor–patient trust; and (5) medical service quality and service satisfaction were the positively sequential mediators between communication and doctor–patient trust Based on these findings, improvements in doctor–patient communication, medical service quality, and service satisfaction are the important issues contributing to the rebuilding of doctor– patient trust in medical service delivery. Doctor–patient trust significantly predicted patients’ satisfaction with medical services in a previous study[24], but few studies have yet explored the effect of service satisfaction on doctor–patient trust
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